"NSW currently ranks second last in recurrent government expenditure per publicly funded annual hour of public vocational education and training.
"This is a disgrace given NSW’s internal skills crisis is compounded by an exodus of trained workers to the mining boom states of WA and Queensland.
"Minister Firth needs to curb her Federal colleague’s infatuation with throwing cash at for-profit private training colleges and return to delivering quality, vocational education and training.
"The CEET report is backed up by an Australian Education Union survey of over 2,600 TAFE education professionals showing big gaps in resources at the coalface of skills training.
"The survey showed three-quarters of TAFE teachers in NSW had to turn away students in the last two years.
"Skills education is core government business. It is not an optional extra. It is the foundation of a solid economy and a successful community.
"Minister Firth needs to pressure her Federal colleagues to deliver increased funding for NSW TAFE," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
Copies of the reports are available at:
State of our TAFEs survey CEET report
Commenting on Dr Kaye said: "Education Minister Verity Firth is playing politics with the future of education.
"As part of the Keneally government's campaign to wedge the Opposition over the issue of league tables, the Minister is prepared to put the future of children at disadvantaged schools at risk.
"Verity Firth is happy to see students and schools stigmatised by misleading league tables in order to stir up media hostility against Liberal leader Barry O'Farrell and create divisions within the Coalition.
"The Minister is sacrificing the quality of education in this state for the sake of a couple of headlines that might help the Labor party at the next election.
"The Minister is more interested in appeasing an angry media outlet than in protecting quality education in NSW.
"It is particularly appalling to see a Labor government attempting to score cheap campaign points at the expense of some of the state's most disadvantaged communities.
"Verity Firth has hidden behind the national protocols, despite their complete failure to stop league table. Now she is now trying to remove the last protection against league tables in this state," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
]]>"Much of this increase is being driven by a $17 billion spend on the
existing poles and wires network.
"Up to a third of this cost could be avoided by using renewable energy
as a solution to household power needs.
"NSW faces the prospect of creating 'fuel poverty', where some of the
state’s most vulnerable households will be forced to go cold this winter.
"Households should not have to bear the brunt of over two decades of
mismanagement of the state’s publicly owned electricity sector.
"Renewing the state’s electricity infrastructure is a perfect opportunity
for the NSW government to move to the proven technologies provided
by solar and wind.
"Instead of throwing cash at an old-fashioned technology that is beyond
its use-by date, the NSW government should be investing in smart grids
that can help households manage their power use.
"NSW Premier Kristina Keneally must act to make renewable energy the
primary focus for new electricity infrastructure," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
]]>"Instead they continue to fall back on the same old tired excuses they have
been churning out for the past three years.
"Hunter Water persists in its reliance on unrealistic drought risks. The
response has again failed to account for the use of water restrictions and
demand management to cope with any future short term pressure on supplies.
"The utility is trying to create panic over water shortages to justify
building their favourite project.
"A series of 'commitments' such as a possible national park and water
releases are nothing new. Hunter Water has packaged up its legal and
administrative obligations as concessions.
"The promise of 2.5 billion litres of water released into the Williams River
does not disguise the harsh reality that Tillegra would take flows of 60
billion litres a year from the Williams and Hunter River and the estuary.
"The re-engineering of Seaham Weir was always necessary and will do little
to keep the estuary and lower Hunter River alive.
"The community will not be panicked into accepting this dam and the Keneally
government should join them in rejecting the excuses and concessions.
"Hunter Water has broken faith with its obligation to serve its community.
It has reverted to being an old-fashioned engineering-dominated bureaucracy
with a 'build at any cost' mentality.
"The response to submissions is misleading and dismissive. The Keneally
government should reject the dam," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
]]>"Their expert analysis suggests that adopting Julia Gillard's curriculum without major changes would be a step backwards for education in NSW.
"Verity Firth must make it clear to her federal colleague that NSW will reject the national curriculum unless all of these problems are fixed.
"Major reworking of at least three of the disciplines will be required to ensure that NSW students are not forced to accept poorer quality education.
"With just eleven weeks of consultation, it is difficult to see how substantial re-writing can be achieved in time to start rolling out the new contents next year.
"Thanks to decades of hard work by NSW teachers and education experts, this state has a world-leading curriculum that is well suited to the range of needs of students.
"NSW should not be forced to take a backwards step to bolster the political ambitions of the Deputy Prime Minister.
"Verity Firth has promised that NSW students will not lose out in the change to a national curriculum.
"She cannot ignore the expert warnings.
"The NSW minister must make it clear to her federal counterpart that acceptance of any new curriculum is conditional on it being at least as good as the existing documents," Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
Introduction
While the Federal Government’s Energy Efficient Homes Package was still operating, the NSW Office of Fair Trading advised homeowners and tenants to conduct their own risk assessments for installing insulation. Households were encouraged to obtain the insulation installers’ sign off on their amateur risk assessments.
In many cases insulation installed under the Package became an electrocution and fire hazard. On average, one house fire a week was caused by incorrectly installed insulation in 2009.
The NSW Government, despite its responsibility for safety at work, allowed unqualified people to work in the confined roof crawl spaces.
The Energy Efficient Homes Package program has been suspended and the Minister responsible, Peter Garrett, effectively demoted.
Fair Trading
There is no requirement under NSW Fair Trading for insulation installers to hold qualifications in roofing installation.
Information provided by the NSW Office of Fair Trading encouraged householders to inform installers of the risks in their homes and to confirm they understood the guidelines for safe installation.
This was in contravention of the NSW government’s own workplace safety laws, which place responsibility for the completion of risk assessments before work commences with employers.
The advice provided by the NSW Office of Fair Trading on their website[1] was for households to complete a self-assessment checklist.
There was no requirement for householders to enter their roof space to verify any of the items on the NSW Office of Fair Trading checklist.
The NSW Office of Fair Trading then encouraged households to obtain the installer’s signature on the checklist and acknowledgement of the standards for fitting insulation around potential heat sources.
Safety Checklist
Below is a copy of a section of the Office of Fair Trading checklist[2]:
| Questions to ask yourself | Yes | No |
| Does your ceiling have TV boosters or security alarms installed in the roof space? |
||
| Does your ceiling contain halogen 12 volt down lights? | ||
| Does your ceiling contain incandescent 240 down lights? | ||
| Does you home contain a flue from a gas heater that goes into the roof space? |
||
| Does you home contain a chimney from a fire that goes into the roof space? |
||
| Does you home have any transformers in the roof space, for example to service a door bell or other low voltage equipment? |
||
| Does you home have high intensity heating lamps in the bathroom? |
||
| Do you have an exhaust from the kitchen or bathroom that vents into the roof space? |
Risk from ceiling insulation
In 2009 over 53 house fires in NSW were attributed to incorrectly installed ceiling insulation[3]. Fifteen of these occurred in October/November 2009 following a large number of households taking up the Federal Government’s Energy Efficient Homes Package.
The program has been linked to the deaths of four roofing installers nationally.
A recent prosecution of ABC Insulation resulted in an installer receiving a $10,000 fine for work that caused a house fire in western Sydney. Minister for Fair Trading Virginia Judge welcomed the courts decision and issued a press release over the matter. The release said that Fair Trading was investigating other installers.
Comments from John Kaye
Dr Kaye said: “It is a bit rich for Minister for Fair Trading Virginia Judge to crow over the successful prosecution of a home insulation installer.
“It was her agency that helped open the floodgates for dodgy home insulation installers by recommending do-it-yourself risk assessments to households.
“The NSW Office of Fair Trading put amateurs in charge of assessing and managing fire and electrocution risk. The Minister’s own agency failed in its duty to protect households from poorly qualified roof insulators.
“Homeowners and tenants should not have been expected to have to give installers a lesson in electrical wiring guidelines before they started work.
"The risk from working in confined spaces is well recognised. An entire section of the NSW OHS Regulations is dedicated to it, yet assessment and management was handed over to homeowners, many of whom may have never even been in their roof cavities.
“With over 70 house fires linked to poorly installed insulation in NSW last year, Minister Judge should explain why her dodgy information continues to be peddled on the Fair Trading website,” Dr Kaye said.
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455"It leaves no wriggle room to slip in religiously based views on the origin of species as science.
"Julia Gillard's draft curriculum is remarkable silent on the connection between natural selection and the evolution of ancient species into modern forms.
"With a little imagination, a fundamentalist school could teach intelligent design or old-earth creationism. The NSW Board of Studies would be powerless to stop them.
"While the draft national curriculum has all the right words such as the fossil history of five fingered limbs and selection pressures, it lacks the NSW curriculum's iron clad instruction that natural selection and evolution are the driving force behind the diversity of species.
"Whether deliberately or by mistake, the draft opens the floodgates to religious theories that do not withstand the test of evidence to be taught as science.
"The draft national curriculum could reproduce in Australia the same problems faced by the USA where the majority are actively hostile to scientific explanations for the origin of life.
"Every fundamentalist private school in Australia will be emboldened by this document.
"Now that they know that they can get away with it, it will be open season for voodoo science," Dr Kaye said
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455
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